We stayed in some condos on Maui right across the street from the hotel called the Grand Wailea. We could enjoy all the fun parts of that resort, but be in a condo with a little more room. It was great. The first day we were there, we just wanted to enjoy the beach and the pool. Zelle had recently partially torn her MCL in a soccer tournament (3 days earlier), so I'm not sure this was the best move, but she went into the ocean and did all the things she normally would have with a big knee brace. Needless to say, it was a sandy mess by the end of the trip, but I was so glad she was able to enjoy all the things she loves to do there. I'm not sure why beach time is so fun for us as a family, but there seems to be something for everyone to do, and we all get to just enjoy being together. We played new card games, read books, built sand castles, body surfed, and boogy boarded. The hotel pool has multiple water slides, a rope swing, sandy beach pool area for little guys, and beach volleyball that we enjoyed several times. Midway through the trip, Goose decided she could swim without her floaties. She took several lessons throughout June, but I wasn't ready for her to swim on her own yet. She could not be dissuaded, however, so she now swims all by herself. I'm nervous the whole time, but it goes along with the super independent spirit of the Goose. Monday night, we picked Elise up at the airport. This was such a treat to get a few days with Elise in Hawaii. We sort of daydreamed about how fun it would be earlier in the summer, but then decided to make it a reality with her upcoming wedding. When else would we get summer time with her like this, the way we used to get summer time with her every year? We have lots of fond memories of her coming out to Danville to spend weeks at a time with us most every summer. So, that was the inspiration behind the trip. As her wedding got closer with more and more to do, she could only make it out for a few days, but it was so great to have her there.
Mark husked a coconut off a coconut tree where we were staying, which has become a tradition every time we go to Hawaii - glad we could continue that :). We also found a snorkeling beach where we saw lots of fish and eels. We were hoping for sea turtles, but only Zelle, Abby and I saw one the previous day when we rented a canoe at the beach. We went to the aquarium one day, and found a fun breakfast/smoothie shack and took our breakfast to eat at a picnic table at the beach. One night we went to a luau for dinner, and another night we drove up to the base of Haleakala to the Haile Male General Store where we had an incredible dinner. We also watched a lot of Olympics! My favorite Olympic memory there in Hawaii was watching the US women's soccer team win the gold medal match. We picked a bag full of plumeria blossoms (which are heaven to me), and all the girls made their own leis while we were watching. They wore their leis that night to the luau. We were sorry to see Peel go, but so glad we had the days we did with her. We went to church on Sunday there, and after picking Goose up from nursery, we asked her how it was. She said, "it was good, but all the friends were hitting me." Sounds super fun. We also visited a plantation where we saw all kinds of the great trees and plants that grow in Hawaii - mango, macadamia nut, papaya, guava, and more. One day we went into Lahaina where we saw the huge Banyan tree and the museum there. We visited the old prison, and learned a little bit about the missionary history of Hawaii. On our way home, we stopped at a fruit stand and decided to try every fruit we'd never had before that was there. So we all tasted starfruit, passion fruit, jackfruit, among others. It was fun to have a little taste test back at the condo. I think we liked all of them pretty well.
It is always really sad to leave Hawaii. It's such a magical place, but it was great because everyone was looking forward to being in Woodside so much. It would have been much harder to leave without that to head on to! So we arrived in Woodside late one night and couldn't figure out how to get in any of the gates. (Mom and Mike Dahl had given us good directions, we just botched it) So, anyway, we were throwing suitcases and kids over the gate and rolling our bags down the dark driveway at midnight one night - pretty funny.
Woodside was magical!! We enjoyed being there on our own for a couple of days, but were really looking forward to everyone else's arrival. We spent our time enjoying the property and heading into Stanford campus where we went to the art museum and got in trouble for Goose touching some Rodin sculptures. Oops. Over the next couple of days, people started arriving - yay! It was really wonderful to see the cousins all playing together. They spent many happy hours at the playground swinging and playing "rapunzel" up in the tree house. We had some great bocce ball matches, and lots of good soccer games. We also enjoyed the pool most afternoons in the heat of the day. We all took turns making dinner, and it was great to eat all together on the patio. The kids absolutely loved driving/riding on the golf carts. Jacob and Zelle were only too happy to give passengers rides anywhere on them. We also played tennis whenever we could. A couple of times we played until it was too dark to see anymore. One night, we had a nice adult dinner with Chinese takeout and spent time catching up with each other. It was nice to hear about everyone's lives in a way we can't with the chaos and unpredictability of evenings with kids. We enjoyed the theater and saw the first Bourne movie on it. We also had lots of Roberts market smoothies and food. Thank goodness for Roberts right there! While we mostly wanted to just enjoy being at the property together, we did venture out to San Francisco one day with all the kiddos. We went to Pier 39 where we ate clam chowder out of bread bowls (high on my girls' list of to do's there), and saw the sea lions and view of Alcatraz. From there we headed to the Conservatory of Flowers, which was exciting because it's been closed for years and years since the '89 earthquake, so that was a first for us. The next day, Mom and Mike worked hard to arrange some horseback riding for all the kids, and a trail ride for other people who wanted to ride. The kids had a blast, and it was beautiful to ride through the horse park - what a perfect way to spend my 37th birthday! We celebrated with cake and pizza later that evening, and I kept telling my cute nieces and nephews how glad I was that I got to have them as my friends at my party this year. What a treat! It's fun to see how after only a year of use, all of us have already built lots of fond memories there. Our kids talk about it as if they've been going there for 10+ years.
After such an amazing extended vacation, it was time to get back to reality! We headed home and tried to get any last school supplies we needed, and make sure uniforms were clean and ready. We had lots of meet your teacher/orientation meetings. For Labor Day weekend, we went to Lagoon and rode the rides since we hadn't done that all year. I even rode "3-2-1 fly" with Abby and Lu. That is a crazy ride, but it was really fun. Goose got her fever again, so we are definitely back into that mystery, but for now, don't feel like there's a whole lot to do about it, except know we will have a sick kid every few weeks. I don't really know what else to do. On Monday, Zelle and I saw the Obama 2016 movie with Pell, Dad and Mom. It's an amazing movie that I wish everyone would see. It's quite an education...phew. Mark gave Father's blessings that evening and we were ready to go for the first day of school!
We've just completed the first week, and it went really well. Zelle is past being excited about it. She already had lots of homework this weekend, and is in the thick of the 8th grade stuff of life. She handles it well, and I'm really proud of her because I know a lot of it's not fun. Abby was pumped to start 6th grade, to be in middle school and to graduate from jumpers. The excitement was over, however, with her first weekend homework yesterday...bummer! Lu loves her teacher, Mrs. Johnsen, who both Jacob and Elise have had. Susie loves being at school with her sisters finally, and even thinks the bus is ok. She has Mrs. Freestone who Lu had for first grade. She wasn't as tired as I thought she might be waking up early and going to a full day of school. That's not to say she wasn't tired, but I was bracing for exhaustion, so I was pleasantly surprised. Goose started at Holladay Preschool, and goes 3 mornings a week. She loves it already, and wasn't too happy to see me Friday when I picked her up. She said something like, "You weren't supposed to pick me up yet. I wanted to stay longer." Too bad we can't convince her teachers of that because I totally agreed with her...haha. I love my time with Goosie!
banyan tree in old Lahaina
Zelle and Goose at the pool
burying Abby in the sand
picnic lunch at the beach
yahoo - leis that we made
this kills me...
drip castles
bowl of mystery fruits to try
Woodside!!
a happy chauffeur 
other modes of transportation
grandpa and some of his granddaughters
Abby holding court with some tinies
D teaching the girls how to roll taquitos
pier 39
Dahlias outside the conservatory of flowers
Annie, Wuze 'nuggling
horse time!
Tuggy feeding the horses carrots
back to reality! 1st day of school
we all survived the first week :)
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